American Pictures – Jacob Holdt

But where the concept in Africa ant a closely connected family living together in the 1e compound, it has in America meant the brutal ooting and forcible separation of family members r great physical distances. en liberals excuse the destruction of the black family sympathetically talking about its “inheritance from very —as if the family alone, and for no reason, uld have carried this inheritance on from generation reneration — it is in order to blame an evil system ich existed 100 years ago so that they can feel mselves free of responsibility today.

What Isaw in and again was not a black inheritance from very, but society’s inheritance from slavery. When the ole system they live in today is hardly -inguishable from (and even perceived as) slavery, it ardly surprising that the inheritance from slavery is » in fact being forced upon the black family. Many of se children’s missing fathers have over the years It the southern highways in chain gangs.

Today re are no chains, as bloodhounds and -machineguns are far more effective. By following of the prison trucks I discovered that among other ngs the prison workers clean up around the mansions | on the private beaches of the richest people in the “ld in Palm Beach.

The work here under the guns of ite overseers can hardly be perceived by the black sciousness as anything but a direct continuation of slave work formerly carried out around the large ite plantation homes. Just as the slaves in those days nd it justifiable to steal in order to survive the dships that had been forced upon them, many of ay’s unhappy prisoners also feel forced into crime to vive the poverty which these white millionaires are Ity of causing. When blacks everywhere in America much harder and longer sentences than whites for ilar offenses, the perception of slavery becomes a crete reality.

Many blacks have received a life tence for criminal charges of which whites would re been acquitted.

“Not since the publication of Jacob Riis’ book of social criticism, How the Other Half Lives, has there been as powerful a record of Ameri- can living as American Pictures. Its presenta- tion at the Cannes Film Festival created a sen- sation.” The San Francisco Film Festival.

Jacob Holdt grew up only 15 miles from Jacob Riis’ hometown in Denmark. Like Riis, whose arrival in America preceeded Holdt’s almost to the date by a century, he spent his first six years as atramp. Yet the similarity between the two goes beyond the circumstances of their birth, upbringing and travels. Their photogra- phy and compassionate, rather unsophisticated writing is also similar. Both urge social reform, insisting that “the other half” of American so- ciety is everyone’s responsibility. American Pictures, however, is also an investigation of the racism Holdt perceives growing in himself as he becomes increasingly involved in his new society.

He insists that his pictures must be seen as a description not of those in a black underclass crushed by the effects of such rac- ism, but of a white social disease so disturbing that it is easier for most to focus (photogra- phically or otherwise) on the symptoms rather than the cause. In its unusual exposure of that disease, American Pictures has an urgent nessage for all whites.

– | | | AMERICAN PICTURES A personal journey through the American underclass Jacob Holdt American Pictures Foundation American Pictures Cover and lay-out: Kitte Fennestad American consultant: Camilla Decarnin Special editor: Karen Duff Production: Nerhaven Printed in Denmark 1985 © American Pictures Foundation ISBN 87-981702-0-1 All rights reserved. Published by the American Pictures Foundation, Copenhagen. Call me not a citizen of Athens, but a citizen of the world. ..

Socrates My country is the whole world. … Dante To me it seems a dreadful thing to have a soul controlled by geography. …George Santayana My country is the whole world, and my religion is to do good. … Thomas Paine, Rights of Man We are asked to love or to hate such and such a country and such and such a people.

But some of us feel too strongly our common humanity to make such a choice. …Albert Camus The rebel: There is not anywhere in the world a poor creature who’s been lynched or tortured in whom Iam not murdered and humiliated… … Aimé Césaire: “Les Armes Miraculeuses” We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. …Martin Luther King A book is rarely the work of one person, and a photo and travel book certainly becomes a very collaborative effort.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 1b15e48d10d02b14
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 29,708,464 bytes (28.332 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 8798170201
• Pages: 309
• Language: English (en)

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